How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains

Coello Sanz, Fernando; Casals, Frederic; Sánchez-González, Jorge Rubén

doi:10.3390/w13050721

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How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains

Fernando Coello Sanz

^1,2,

Frederic Casals

^2,3,4,*

and

Jorge Rubén Sánchez-González

^1,2,4

Section of Quality, Environmental Evaluation and Environment—TRAGSATEC-SEPI, C/Julian Camarillo, 6B, Sector D, 28037 Madrid, Spain

Department of Animal Science—Wildlife Section, University of Lleida, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain

Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia-CTFC, 25280 Solsona, Spain

⁴

Iberian Society of Ichthyology, Department of Environmental Biology, University of Navarra, C/Irunlarrea 1, 31008 Pamplona/Iruña, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editors: Richard C. Smardon and Xing Fang

Water 2021, 13(5), 721; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050721

Received: 31 December 2020 / Revised: 17 February 2021 / Accepted: 1 March 2021 / Published: 6 March 2021

(This article belongs to the Section Water Quality and Contamination)

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Abstract

Rivers are among the most biodiverse and endangered ecosystems on earth. In Europe, concern over their conservation promoted the development of legal instruments for habitat and species conservation, the Habitats Directive, and water resource management, the Water Framework Directive. This legal protection demanded the estimate of river ecosystem surface for different purposes. Different approaches allow river surface to be measured at a low cost. Some accurate techniques like satellite images or LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) do not always work at a large scale or for streams and small rivers. We discuss here the use of the traditional hydraulics relationship between drainage area and bankfull width as a good approach to river surface estimation. We confirm that the use of this cheap and simple method could be a good approach to estimate river surface. However, we also proved that the development of regional curves, i.e., to establish the empirical relationship based on study area data, constitutes an essential improvement to estimation. View Full-Text

Keywords: bankfull; habitats directive; water framework directive; freshwater ecosystem; river width

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Coello Sanz, F.; Casals, F.; Sánchez-González, J.R. How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains. Water 2021, 13, 721. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050721

AMA Style

Coello Sanz F, Casals F, Sánchez-González JR. How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains. Water. 2021; 13(5):721. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050721

Chicago/Turabian Style

Coello Sanz, Fernando, Frederic Casals, and Jorge Rubén Sánchez-González. 2021. "How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains" Water 13, no. 5: 721. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050721

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How Can Be Lotic Ecosystem Size More Precisely Estimated? Comparing Different Approximations in Pre-Pyrenean and Pyrenean Mountains

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